The gun, with one round in the chamber and 10 in the magazine, was found by a traveler last week on the back of a toilet seat beyond Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, according to a Denver police report.

It was later returned to the agent, who was traveling on Southwest Airlines from Denver to Houston.

The DEA has stayed mum on the gun, declining to confirm the agency's ties to the incident.

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"Incidents such as the one you described ... fall within the scope of an (internal) investigation and DEA does not confirm, deny or comment on internal investigations," Lisa Johnson, spokeswoman for the DEA's Houston Division, said in response to a Chronicle query.

The agent's name is redacted from a report by Denver police, but his agency is noted, as is his gender, age, race and home city.

After the gun was found, the bathroom was cordoned off and the FBI was notified. The agent's identity was confirmed before the gun was returned.

"He states he had used the rest room and had accidently left the handgun there," notes the police report. "At the request of (an FBI agent) the credentials were verified and the handgun was released back to him and he resumed his travels."

When it comes to losing a gun, the Houston agent is not alone.

There have been a stream of incidents involving officers and agents from various agencies, leaving their guns in bathrooms in airports and at least once, on a plane.

In August, a Secret Service agent left a gun in the bathroom on presidential candidate Mitt Romney's plane. It was found by a reporter traveling with the campaign.

Larry Karson, an assistant professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Houston- Downtown said with more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, the potential for this type of incident always is present.

"It is similar to a person setting down their cell phone with all their personal information and walking away because their mind is on something else," said Karson, a retired Customs Service agent. "The problem in this case is that if a child was to walk in afterward and find it, unlike the cell phone, there is the potential for somebody to get seriously hurt or killed."

Denver police Detective John White said there was no criminal intent surrounding the handgun left in the Denver airport bathroom and there would be no further criminal investigation.